The Windy City...

On a whim, Joel and I decided to take a trip to Chicago. It's something we've wanted to do since we moved here and we thought, why not? So, Friday morning we loaded up the car and made the four hour drive up to the big city. The drive went surprisingly well with a fifteen-month-old in tow (movies on the laptop saved us!).  We arrived to a beautiful 60 degree day, checked into our hotel and headed down to Navy Pier for some fun...

  

Lots to see on the Pier... shops, boats, a giant ferris wheel, and a breathtaking view at the end of it all. Okay so it was a little disappointing... there wasn't a whole lot open or running but the view at the end was great! (yes, that is ice behind us in the lake!)

Norah got to play in the park at the end of it all and was SO happy to be out of the stroller!

 

The next day was pure comedy... we got up and decided to walk to Millennium Park and then on to the art museum. It's not called the windy city for nothing!  We walked out into the freezing wind and started through the park (which was amazing... the sculptures from Frank Geary were crazy!), halfway through it started pouring rain.  We ran to the parking structure for cover and after about 15 minutes we decided to make a run for it to the museum.  We arrived soaking wet (did I mention we forgot our umbrella?!), ready to see all that museum had to offer... unfortunately, Norah had other plans. She was tired of being in the stroller and just wanted to run around.  That doesn't work so well in museum... we saw about 1/3 of what we wanted to and then gave up, got some food at the cafe and went back to our hotel so Norah could take a much needed nap.

 

The rain didn't let up that night so we ended up letting Norah run around in the hotel lobby (she loved the fountains and the escalators) and grabbed some food nearby.

The next day we woke up and grabbed brunch at a favorite local restaurant- yummy- and that afternoon we walked down the Magnificent Mile, gawked at the amazing architecture, strolled through the shops and grabbed dinner. We bought Norah some gloves that she was so proud of...

Don't worry... that white thing on her chin is just a bandage holding the cut she got earlier in the day when she slipped in the bathroom and split her chin open on the edge of the bathtub... it was so sad...what a day!

The next morning was much better... the sun was shining (of course on the day we leave!) and before we left town we stopped at the Garfield Park Conservatory.  It was heaven on Earth! They had several different rooms with different types of vegetation. Our favorites were the Fern Room and the Flower Room- they even had an area just for kids. We wanted to spend all day there...

 

 

All-in-all it was fun family trip but we decided, for any future vacations, we won't be taking any trips to big cities unless we are alone or have another couple with us so we can switch off babysitting... otherwise, it's the beach for us!